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Jojo
Jojo Tully @Jojo

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What to do about a picky cat?

Posted by Jojo - 5 days ago

So I have taken notice that Lucy (my cat) has been VERY picky about what she wants to eat. The first night she came to my house, I gave her a turkey slice as it was the most edible thing for cats that I could give her at the time (which she ate), but she seems very picky about what she wants to eat now. I even experimented and tried to give her another turkey slice, but no dice. I've been able to get her to eat a bit through coercion, like pretending to enjoy the food while standing up and "accidentally" dropping some, but otherwise she doesn't seem to be eating enough. I've been feeding her 9-lives as it was the least expensive wet cat food I could buy her without carrageenan (a cancer-causing ingredient for cats) in it. What could I try?


Could it be that she is adjusting to a new environment and will eventually be alright?

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CrimsonKero

I've just used regular old ham. Works fine.

Jojo

I take it I will have to get a natural ham without any kind of salt or preservatives? I read those things can be bad for cats, and I already really care about her. Hehe~

CrimsonKero

@Jojo Research different brands of ham at either your local supermarket or nearest butcher.
Try to find different types / brands that balances both taste and a low sodium.

And if you have enough, make yourself a ham sandwich to celebrate.

Jojo

I will look into it. Thank you. :)

Yatsufusa

I'm not a veterinarian. The best person to address about this for detailed feedback would be the 'animal officer' you talked to originally - as they are most familiar with these cases and will have insights that can go beyond what a regular veterinarian might see in a lifetime.

From personal experience I can tell you a few things:
1) Cats get picky. As soon as you feed them "slightly better food" even once, they will "go diva" immediately and will only accept "lesser food" slowly and begrudgingly.
Keep in mind that the turkey slice you gave Her Majesty yesterday was fresher yesterday than it was today. That might already be it.

2) If she only chews once and mews at you in protest afterwards she might have a tooth ache. To a cat, the most logical explanation in such a case is that the food or the location is at fault.

3) She might just be careful. She's with you for about 3 days now. Maybe she was famished enough to not care originally.

4) Cats are 'intentionally mysterious'. I could _not_ "psychoanalyze a _cat_" - let alone do it 'remotely'. I can ping 3 people on NG for you who I "strongly suspect" to be either 'cat-whisperers' or cats. In alphabetical order, these are:
@ADR3-N
@CatGuard
@SouSTAR

Jojo

The thing that makes me think she's okay with her new environment is that she's been sleeping soundly on her personal bed I made for her as well as actually sleeping right next to me the whole night last night on my bed. So it's almost gotta be what you said about her just not immediately liking the lesser food I'm giving her. It's likely she could eventually succumb to the cat food as she has proven that she will eat when she is genuinely hungry with the turkey slice.

SouSTAR

I don't have a cats, and have no experience with cats sadly, but maybe your presence have something with it? does she stop eating the second you go elsewhere? Or maybe she prefer to eat alone in a room?

Maybe the place the first time you fed her changed? Do you always feed her in the same room? Maybe it's better to feed her in the same room/place you originally fed her

@Yatsufusa make great points, and seeking out a veterinarian or an animal officer (i don't know what is an animal officer (っ´ω｀c) ) is always the better choice!

Yatsufusa

@SouSTAR "You know... an 'animal officer'":
https://www.newgrounds.com/art/view/tanooki/flint-lockton
;3

To be perfectly honest, I never heard of them before reading this post:
https://jojo.newgrounds.com/news/post/1533567
...but I can extrapolate. Most likely Jojo's area is seeing a lot of strays and/or animal related crime*, so they have a small team of underpaid people dedicated to dealing with animals. Or it's just a fancy word for "person who works at the animal shelter".

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=au_tL122R6g

CatGuard

You are pampering her way too much, you give her HAM? Meat? Mine only eats cat ration and from time to time a bit of whiskers sashe, some types of ration she doesn’t like or doesn’t eat, or if she does eat she starts to shed more hair than what she did with another type of ration, give her some more fiber, give cat ration

ADR3-N

It will take up to 6 months for her to fully adjust to your house.

Cats are also notoriously picky eaters. You may try a bit of raw salmon and see if she takes interest in that. If so, you have a case of a picky cat, which is what I expect from your description.

I don't recommend feeding wet food to animals often. It ruins their teeth.

You don't have to worry too much. If she doesn't eat (at all) for longer than 3 days, or take water for 2 days, I would consider seeing the vet. She could have a hairball in her belly.

How are her bowel movements and urination?

Jojo

What lovely advice. She has been using her litter box, but no hairball as of yet to my knowledge. Guess I am getting her some salmon possibly. I'll eat it with her.

ADR3-N

@Jojo Recommend sushi grade salmon, if you can get it.

Don't let anyone tell you otherwise -- it's perfectly fine to spoil your cat if you have the money, and you really want to. Raw meat is what cats ate for millennia before we ever domesticated them. They weren't designed to eat corn and all the other filler in modern cat food.

In fact, cats who don't eat meat need more water than cats who do. So take that into account.

Cooked meat is also fine. It will help her stay free of parasites. No seasoning if possible. Check what seasonings cats are unable to eat, I mean.

Regular vet checkups and monitoring kidney function will be very important as she gets to the age of 10+. Kidney disease took out my last baby because the previous owner did not tell us she was on a special diet and medication. We only caught it when she was terminal. I had her for a few years and she was the best old lady.

Not to scare you, but if your cat is regularly throwing up and has poor appetite, look into her kidneys ASAP.

You may also try feline calming pheromone diffusers to speed the process of her acclimation along. Place them in high traffic areas.

Avoid plants and so on which are toxic to cats.

Anyway, that's about all the first-time cat advice I can think up. Sorry for word vomiting.

Jojo

Not problem at all! Thank you! To be honest, I am far too broke to be able to take her to the vet right now, but I figured having her live in my house is at least better than her previous living situation. I'll get some good salmon for her though and see how that fares for her.

ADR3-N

@Jojo Please update when you can!

Jojo

Will do! I will accept whatever happens as there is always only one outcome in the grand scheme of things to all this, and I am destined to make the choices that will lead to this eventual, inevitable outcome. But I will
most certainly be using my best agency gathered from years of knowledge and experience to make the wisest possible decision within my power.

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